And the best thing about a Summit is that it gives the customer an option. They can enter the HD market for $298 and then if they choose to upgrade later on they just add a Shaw PVR Expander for $200 to what they have instead of having to trade the unit in and get a whole new one.

If you have a Motorola 6200 (under warranty) you get less than you paid for it on a trade up and then you still have to pay full price for the new PVR (minus the trade up value). So you pay $298 for a Moto 6200 then a year later you want a PVR so you have to buy one at $498 -$150 (trade up) = $348 so in reality you paid $646 (348 + 298) where with the Pace it is still $498

I have been looking to get a PVR for some time now, and since the start of the hockey season is around the corner I finally called shaw and got somewhat of a deal out of them. They offered me the 6 month PVR rental and buyout at $250 after the 6 months. I was about to do it but decided I will wait a couple of days, and just saw this topic.

I was curious if the Pace Summit will allow any external hard drive to be attached to it, or if it would have to be the extender? And if I can use an external hard drive, would they still give me the 50% off on the Summit, or $250 off or whatever?

The Summit is not for rent so if you will be getting a free rental is may be an Aspen or a Motorola model.

Shaw, Pace and Motorola have tested the 2 models of PVR Expanders and they have worked through all of the testing. Other external hard drives may indeed work but their reliabilty and compatability is not know.

I spoke to Shaw this morning, and they said that the 6200 *CAN* be turned into a 2-tuner PVR *if* you use their own expander. Apparently their expander is more than just sata harddrive in a box - it also has the 2nd tuner in the box to enable dual watch and/or record capability on the 6200 and on the Pace box that also has no internal HD and ony one tuner.

Well, he was pretty clear in 2 messages that the Shaw version *does* include a 2nd HD tuner. We'll have to wait and see. Bestbuy definitely lists the items seperately, both with (similar but) different descriptions, so my guess would be that BB maybe has the wrong picture with the Shaw device (it wouldn't be the first time they did that!) and that the two are possibly different devices...

The Pace Summit is very similar to the Pace Aspen, except it does not
have PVR capabilities. It is compatible with the 1TB PVR expander,
which turns it into dual-tuner PVR. Like the 3416, it only has a
digital tuner, so while it will work in Winnipeg, it will not be
available in all Shaw areas.

The Pace Whistler is very similar to the Pace Tahoe. The primary
differences between the Whistler and the Tahoe are cosmetic. The
Whistler is black, while the Tahoe is silver. The Whistler also lacks
an Ethernet port, which is something we did not use on the older units.
It has a 160GB internal hard drive, and is compatible with external hard
drives.

Pretty sure Hot Potato's right. As I recall, the 6200 has no eSATA connector making the whole issue moot. The firmware revisions and hardware costs of doing what the CSR suggested seem prohibitive, and certainly not likely deliverable at a sub-$200 price point.

I suspect the CSR was confused between the PVR Expander, support for existing Pace STB's, upcoming support for Moto STB's, and the new Pace hardware. They've been given a lot of new info over the past few days and he likely got his wires crossed. The new Pace Summit and Whistler are dual-tuner.

I stand corrected, you are right. I just now received an e-mail from the Shaw CSR (all of their own accord, mind you!) apologizing for sending me incorrect info this morning, and setting the record straight, as follows:

-The PVR Expander is *only* a harddrive (that Shaw fully supports) and does not contain a 2nd tuner.

-The Pace Whistler itself *is* already Dual Tuner, but without a harddrive, and therefore becomes a dual tuner PVR with the addition of an external drive.

-The 6200 is NOT compatible with external drives; it was the older 6208 that the CSR was thinking about.

Sorry to add to the confusion, but this should set the record straight.

And FWIW, I think it was pretty nice of the Shaw CSR to remember what he messaged me this morning and then all on his own, send me another message in the afternoon admitting he gave me the incorrect info, correcting it (with a trememndous amount of detail), and apologizing for any confusion he might have caused. That was well done!

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